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Oregon Criminal Justice Commission seeks statewide study of pretrial practices under HB 2935
Summary
The Oregon Criminal Justice Commission asked the House Judiciary Committee to authorize a statewide study of pretrial release, detention and related outcomes under House Bill 2935, saying available data are uneven and the commission does not expect a new fiscal request.
The Oregon Criminal Justice Commission urged the House Judiciary Committee on Jan. 27 to approve House Bill 2935, a request that would direct the commission to study pretrial release practices and outcomes across Oregon.
Jules Dellinger of the Legislative Policy and Research Office told the committee, “This measure requires the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission to study pretrial release practices and outcomes in Oregon.”
Ken Sandshkren, executive director of the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission, testified in support of the bill and said the commission intends to use existing judicial-department data to build a statewide picture of pretrial detention, release rates and failures to appear. “We do not anticipate having a fiscal ask on this,” Sandshkren said, describing the effort as something the commission can add to its regular workload.
The commission and the Oregon Judicial Department (OJD) told the committee they expect the study to be descriptive rather than prescriptive. Aaron Knott, director of government relations and communications for the Judicial Department, said the bill would help the two agencies “make collective sense” of data that touch county, prosecutorial and court systems and that the project is intended to be fiscally neutral.
Committee members asked how useful existing data would be for assessing recent statutory changes. Sandshkren said the study would aim for pre–/post–Senate Bill 48 comparisons where possible but that older records are less complete. “We can't do a true prepost, but we can still ... look and see what the impact is,” he said, adding that OJD’s data systems have improved in recent years.
Members also asked whether the study would examine people held on secured release as well as those released; Sandshkren said the study would include both populations and could be shaped by input from stakeholders and the committee about specific research questions.
No formal vote on HB 2935 occurred during the hearing; the committee opened and closed public testimony on the bill and moved on to the next hearing.
The testimony emphasized that the proposed study is intended to produce a baseline report or dashboard showing release rates, failure-to-appear rates and demographic breakdowns, and that follow-up research could build on that descriptive foundation.
